es of their white antagonists.

My brain got dizzy as I watched the mad turmoil and my blood was at
fever heat, taking part in the fight too, you may be sure, whenever I
saw an opening, and dealing a blow here or parrying one there, as chance
arose, with the best of them, young though I was, and totally
inexperienced in such matters!

It was coming near to the finish, being too warm work to continue much
longer, and I think all of us had had pretty well enough of it, when,
looking round for Colonel Vereker, whom I suddenly missed from among the
combatants, I saw him struggling with one of the blacks in a regular
rough and tumble tussle on the deck.

The two were rolling about close to the after skylight from whence we
had observed the flash of the pistol shot as we approached the ship, and
which the colonel had been trying to get near to ever since he boarded
her, but had been prevented from reaching by one obstacle or another
until now, when this negro clutched hold of him and forced him back
again.

He and the Haytian were tightly locked in a deadly embrace, the negro
gripping him with both arms round the body, and the colonel endeavouring
to release his revolver hand, the two rolling over and over on the deck
towards the rail forward.

"Ha!" muttered the colonel, who was hard pressed, through his set teeth.
"Only let me get free."

Strangely enough, the glass of the skylight above the spot where the
pair were struggling was instantly shattered from within, as if in
response to his muttered cry; and with a loud bark that could have been
heard a mile off, a big dog burst forth from the opening, making
straight for the colonel and his relentless foe.

Then there came a startled yell from the negro, who, releasing his late
antagonist, staggered to his feet.

"Holy name of--" he screamed out in wild affright, but he had not time
to reach the concluding word of his sentence--the name of his patron
saint, no doubt--"the devil!"

For before he could get so far, giving a fierce growl, the dog at once
sprang up at him, his fangs meeting in the Haytian's throat, whereupon
the latter, toppling backwards over the poop-rail, fell into the waist
below, with the dog hanging on to him; and I noticed presently that both
were dead, the brave animal who had come so opportunely to the rescue of
the colonel, his master, being stabbed to the heart by a knife which the
negro still held in his lifeless hand, while his own neck had